The 1930s were a tumultuous time. After World War I, the Allied powers seemed determined to preserve peace, but Germany and Japan held a shared goal of world domination. In two memorandums about the plans of Germany and Japan, U.S. officials make the position that the United States should take plain: mobilize and be ready for war, but do not provoke it. In other words, "Speak softly but carry a big stick." Although Germany and Japan had a few similar goals and ideas, they differed on other issues of subject peoples and races.
Both Germany and Japan had plans to rule the world. They began their
conquests in the early- to mid-1930s, Japan with Manchuria in 1931 and Germany
with the Rhineland in 1936. These occupations would eventually lead to WWII.
Germany and Japan also wanted to control trade and have a political
influence in the countries that surrounded them. For Germany, it was a matter of
national pride. They wanted to show that Germany was still a great state after
their humiliating defeat in WWI. The expansionists of Japan felt that "Japan's
destiny is to subjugate and rule the world". There was no tinge of revenge to the
Japanese conquests.
The main difference between Germany and Japan was that the Japanese
military had the power to defeat other countries without the permission of the
government. The German government not only gave permission, they persuaded
the German people to support their hunger for territory.
Germany was intensely xenophobic. All peoples other than "Aryans" were
persecuted. They intended to annihilate the Jews and breed out the Slavic
people. The memorandum concerning Japan does not give evidence of
xenophobia in Japan, but neither does it imply that the Japanese were
completely tolerant of other races.
Germany and Japan had many similarities in their foreign policies. The
differences in their ideology before WWII were not very major because they still
had one common goal: world domination...